thou hast deigned give ear is on no wise more wondrous than the
Tale of King Omar Bin Al-Nu'uman and His Sons Sharrkan And Zau
Al-Makan, And What Befel Them of Things Seld-Seen and Peregrine.[FN#138]
The King asked her, "And what was their story?" and she answered: It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that there was in the City of Safety, Baghdad, before the Caliphate of Abd al-Malik bin Marwán,[FN#139] a King, Omar bin al-Nu'umán highs, who was of the mighty giants and had subjected the Chosroës of Persia and the Kaysars of Eastern Rome; for none could warm himself at his fire;[FN#140] nor could any avail to meet him in the field of foray and fray; and, when he was angered, there came forth from his nostrils sparks of flame. He had made himself King over all quarters, and Allah had subjected to him all His creatures; his word went forth to all great cities and his hosts had harried the farthest lands. East and West had come under his command with whatsoever regions lay interspersed between them, Hind and Sind and Sin,[FN#141] the Holy Land, Al-Hijaz, the rich mountains of Al-Yaman and the archipelagos of India and China. Moreover, he reigned supreme over the north country and Diyár Bakr, or Mesopotamia, and over Sudán, the Eastern Negro land and the Islands of the Ocean, and all the far famed rivers of the earth, Sayhún and Jayhún,[FN#142] Nile and Euphrates. He sent envoys and ambassadors to